When we got there, it was just becoming independent,” Denny recalled. “The bottom line was that we 20-year-olds were treated with such grace and good will. It is the kind of country where fondness grows quickly.” Denny’s love of the country led him back there many times and eventually led him to another doctor, Chakunja Sibale. That relationship became the cornerstone of Malawi Children’s Village, which aims to assist Malawi’s orphans and the people who care for them. Sibale visited the United States last week to attend a meeting of his board of directors—of which Denny is a member — and to see his old friend in Lockport. “Our idea was not to put orphans together for an orphanage, no, but to help the families without disturbing the cultural systems,” Sibale said. “That is to say, ‘How can we help, so more children can live?’ ” The Malawi Children’s Village is situated on a campus that includes a nutritional rehabilitation center where orphans whose mothers died from AIDS are taken to be nourished. There is a guest house for foreign volunteers, as well as a fishery and demonstration garden to show villagers how best to grow corn — a staple crop in Malawi — and to introduce the concept of irrigation to villagers challenged by irregular rain patterns.

Caption: Dr. Kevin M.Denny, left, and Dr. Chakunja Sibale share a common concern for the children of Malawi, where about 10 percent of its population has been orphaned as a result of the death of a parent with AIDS. Photo: Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News

Dr. Kevin M. Denny likes to say that he went to Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer more than 40 years ago to do good and ended up doing well.

Denny, a Lockport child psychiatrist in private practice, was a junior at Canisius College when he made the decision to spend two years — from 1964 to 1966—in the economically impoverished Central African nation, which has, in the intervening years, given him a richness of purpose.

“When we got there, it was just becoming independent,” Denny recalled. “The bottom line was that we 20-year-olds were treated with such grace and good will. It is the kind of country where fondness grows quickly.”

Denny’s love of the country led him back there many times and eventually led him to another doctor, Chakunja Sibale. That relationship became the cornerstone of Malawi Children’s Village, which aims to assist Malawi’s orphans and the people who care for them.

Sibale visited the United States last week to attend a meeting of his board of directors—of which Denny is a member — and to see his old friend in Lockport.

“Our idea was not to put orphans together for an orphanage, no, but to help the families without disturbing the cultural systems,” Sibale said. “That is to say, ‘How can we help, so more children can live?’ ”

The Malawi Children’s Village is situated on a campus that includes a nutritional rehabilitation center where orphans whose mothers died from AIDS are taken to be nourished. There is a guest house for foreign volunteers, as well as a fishery and demonstration garden to show villagers how best to grow corn — a staple crop in Malawi — and to introduce the concept of irrigation to villagers challenged by irregular rain patterns.

In addition, there is a vocational training school and a secondary school on the campus.

“The secondary school was built about four years ago. Our first class will be graduating this year,” Sibale said.

Malawi is the size of Pennsylvania and has 13 million citizens. It is one of several African nations challenged by the scourge of HIV/AIDS. About 1.3 million — 10 percent of its population — have been orphaned as a result of the death of a parent with AIDS.

Denny met Sibale in 1992, when Sibale was chief administrator of Malindi Hospital in Mangochi District in Malawi.

After touring the hospital, Denny and Sibale became fast friends and corresponded by letter, in which Sibale shared his fledgling ideas on a project to serve Malawi’s children who had been orphaned by the death of a parent with AIDS.

With Denny’s encouragement and the help of the Lockport doctor’s contacts among former Peace Corps volunteers, Sibale six years later established the village, which at its inception, registered 3,500 orphans who were identified in 37 villages.

Sibale said the aim of the project was not merely to warehouse orphans, but to provide essential services to the extended family members and others who take care of these children.

“Mostly, in Malawi, we have extended families, so most of the children are staying with their relatives,” Sibale explained.

Sibale said he was able to get the program off the ground with just $2,000 in seed money from a British businessman. He has been able to grow and sustain it with donations from 400 to 500 former Peace Corps volunteers.

It’s a full-time job for Sibale, who gave up employment as a medical researcher for USAIDS and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite the relatively low cost of the program by Western standards, maintaining consistent funding still is a struggle, Denny said. He said the board sends out three e-mail newsletters a year for fundraising, and a newsletter is mailed out at Thanksgiving.

“Our basic message here is, I would love at this point to have somebody come along and trust after 12 years that this is a worthy and viable project and fund us, not the way we’ve been funded . . . but with consistent funding,” Denny said.

“We’re trying to develop a project that is self-sustaining, but how are you supposed to make money and be self-sustaining?”

Denny said those who wish to donate to the Malawi Children’s Village may contact him via e-mail at kmarkdenny@gmail.com .

Join Us Mr. President!"We will double the size of the Peace Corps by its 50th anniversary in 2011. And we'll reach out to other nations to engage their young people in similar programs, so that we work side by side to take on the common challenges that confront all humanity," said Barack Obama during his campaign.

Director Ron Tschetter: The PCOL InterviewPeace Corps Director Ron Tschetter sat down for an in-depth interview to discuss the evacuation from Bolivia, political appointees at Peace Corps headquarters, the five year rule, the Peace Corps Foundation, the internet and the Peace Corps, how the transition is going, and what the prospects are for doubling the size of the Peace Corps by 2011. Read the interview and you are sure to learn something new about the Peace Corps. PCOL previously did an interview with Director Gaddi Vasquez.

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Story Source: Buffalo News

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Malawi; Medicine; Serivde; Orphans

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